Larry Fine

The middleman for the comedy trio known as The Three Stooges, Larry Fine endured endless slaps, pokes in the eye and mallets to the head, all for the sake of laughter. Alongside brothers Moe and Shemp...
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Every hero needs a good villain. John McClane had Hans Gruber, Sarah Conner had the Terminator, and Chris Pine's Jack Ryan has Viktor Cherevin, the terrifying Russian tycoon played by Kenneth Branagh. But great villains aren't just born; they're carefully crafted, a combination of several fine-tuned elements that come together to create the perfect evil-doer.
Paramount Pictures via Everett Collection
In this exclusive featurette clip from the Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit Blu-ray takes a look at everything that went into transforming Branagh from director into the perfect blockbuster villain. For Cherevin, it takes a delicate balance of the dignity that comes from an experienced Shakespearian actor, the authority that comes from directing prestige pictures and blockbuster fare alike, a rich history of British spy films from which to draw inspiration, and a very shiny suit. How else will people be able to tell that you're the bad guy if your clothes don't telegraph your nefarious intentions?
You can check out the decisions that went into creating Cherevin in the clip above, and pick up Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit on Blu-ray on June 10. And if you think you've got what it takes to take on a villain like Cherevin, you can click here to try the Shadow Recruit training for yourself, and see what kind of action hero you'd make.
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NBC Universal Media
The most memorable image from the sixth season finale of Parks and Recreation, "Moving Up," wasn't Leslie settling into her new title as National Parks Midwestern Regional Manager, or Ben handily defeating a startup CEO at Cones of Dunshire, or even the hologram appearance of a Lil Sebastian hologram at the Unity Concert. No, the most enduring shot from the episode was the last one, with Ben and Leslie, three years in the future, heading off to tackle whatever obstacle has been placed in front of them this time. It's the kind of shot that would cap off a satisfying season finale. One that would give fans comfort that the characters would be fine long after the show goes off the air. But "Moving Up" isn't Parks and Recreation's series finale; we still get to spend at least one more year in Pawnee, and that's what really makes the time jump exciting.
Parks and Recreation’s sixth season has been plagued by repetitive storylines, which have seen Leslie's character stagnate while she comes up with increasingly ridiculous reasons not to leave her hometown for a job that's perfect for her. Throwing a late-season pregnancy into the mix did revive things somewhat, but it left many fans worried about having to endure a season of the Wyatt-Knopes dealing with the same kind of baby woes that plagued Ann and Chris. Once it was revealed that Leslie was going to have triplets, it seemed as if she might abandon her dreams in order to raise a family, which would be a puzzling choice for the hyper-driven, over-ambitious Leslie. The show seemed to have run out of ideas, or at least ones that could keep fans interested, and it was disheartening to see Parks and Recreation spinning its wheels.
And then the camera panned out from the photo on Leslie's wall, and suddenly Parks and Recreation was the show we all knew and loved once again. There was Leslie, with new bangs to go with her new job, running the office with the kind of efficiency and authority that it was impossible to have downstairs. There was Ben (wearing a tux), and their children, being babysat by Andy and April, who are presumably back together after their "divorce." It was a risky move to have so much happen off-screen, to use the last minute of the last episode of the season to hint at everything yet to come, but it's one that paid off immensely.
Shifting the show's status quo opens up all kinds of potential storylines for the seventh season, which is something that the show desperately needed. Leslie has achieved everything she possibly could in her old position, and we've seen her win and lose so many times that there doesn't seem to be any causes left for her to fight. The writers have established multiple times that she's too good for her town, that she deserves better and more respect, so keeping her in a thankless job for another year would have been both pointless and unsatisfying. Putting her in a new job, one that she's clearly excelling at, gives her character a new sense of direction, and a new place for her to channel her endless ambition. Plus, the time jump leaves fans with plenty of unanswered questions about whether the characters are in their lives, which means that they're already invested in the new storylines. After all, you can't introduce a character who is more incompetent than Jerry/Larry/Terry and then never tell us anything about him.
The time jump also perfectly encapsulates the way that Parks and Recreation handles major life events. Though three couples have gotten married over the show's run, only one of them recieved the traditional "special episode" treatment — Andy and April's wedding was an impromptu affair in their living room, and Ron and Diane had the most efficient wedding of all time — and all five new children born this year were birthed off-screen. This is not a program that lets sentiment course through each of its episodes, so it doesn't need to force big, romantic gestures into its process (even though it occasionally opts for those as well). Every episode is filled with heart, so why shouldn't the focus instead be on Leslie succeeding at her job or Andy being the worst babysitter in the world? Above all else, Parks and Recreation is a workplace comedy. The thing that binds all of these oddballs together is their jobs, as ever-changing as they may be, and so refocusing the show on their professional achievements instead of their personal makes perfect sense. We know that Ben and Leslie are going to be okay; what we're interested in is how Leslie's handling her new title.
At its heart, Parks and Recreation is a show about optimism. Leslie truly believes that she can make the world a better place, and that everything she does is for the good of the people she loves. That outlook fuels her ambition, and pushes her to keep fighting and achieving more and more. Never has that message been clearer than it was with Ben asking Leslie if she's ready for whatever it is they have to do next. "Not at all," she says, "But that's never stopped us before." In addition to being a hell of a note to end on, that line is the essence of the show, a manifesto about believing in yourself, your partner, your friends, and your town, and not letting anything stop you from pushing forward and achieving what you set out to.
It's a weirdly final moment for the episode to end on, considering there's another season left to come. But it's a fitting finale for that particular chapter of Leslie's life. She's spent the last six seasons striving to make Pawnee better, and through the merger with Eagleton, she's accomplished that. She needed to move on (even if not geographically) and focus on achieving her other goals. Now she has a family that she can raise in a town she's proud of, and she has a job that's offering her new challenges and changes. The finale didn't just bring the sixth season to a close, but it also put a satisfying cap on an important part of Leslie's story. She's finally moving up, professionally, temporally, and literally within her building, and it's the most exciting Leslie Knope has ever been.
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CBS Broadcasting
Not every show can go out on a good note. Sure, some shows like Breaking Bad come up with a conclusion that feels right and true to most fans. But usually, when a show has been on the air for a while, finding a tidy way to wrap things up can be a chore.
Even if it's been planned out since the beginning, as was the case with the series finale of How I Met Your Mother, it's hard to make people who have invested time in the characters feel like they've said goodbye in a satisfying way. While the fury swells over the HIMYM's controversial ending, it's helpful to distract ourselves with other epic finale fails Ted and his stupid blue French horn are up against.
The Sopranos
It's like the start of a joke… Tony Soprano walks into a diner.
That's how David Chase sets up the finale of his landmark HBO series. The Mafia boss made famous by the late James Gandolfini rifles through a jukebox at his table and picks out Journey's "Don’t Stop Believing." His wife Carmela (Edie Falco) joins him, soon followed by his son A.J. (Robert Iler). The diner is full. A guy in a hat sits at a nearby booth and may have eyed Tony when he was alone. Another guy in a Members Only jacket enters right before A.J. and seems kind of twitchy. Another pair of guys lingers near the counter. Tony's daughter Meadow (Jamie-Lynn Sigler) is late because she can't parallel park. The jacket guy walks past the Soprano's table and goes into the bathroom. Meadow, finally out of the car, walks towards the door of the diner. She reaches out to open it, the bell rings above the door and… nothing. Cut to a black screen.
Millions of Americans reached for their remote, sure that their TV sets had just completely screwed them over and were poised to call their cable company... when suddenly the credits started to roll. The shock that the series ended with a cut to black set fans howling and looking for answers. Did we go black because a bullet just went through Tony's head? Did the bell mean something? Were the potential threats in the diner just a part of Tony's normal paranoia? What the heck does any of it mean? Chase has steadfastly refused to provide much in the way of explanation, leaving a large section of the fan base furious over the ambiguity.
Seinfeld
The show about nothing decided to make the end about something. That's a problem. With Larry David back to write the final episode of the show that he created with his friend Jerry Seinfeld, the group is about to have some good fortune. The show-within-a-show created by Jerry and George (Jason Alexander) finds new life and the duo, along with Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) and Kramer (Michael Richards), are jetting off to Paris to celebrate in a private jet courtesy of NBC. But, some mechanical issues ground them and while they wait, they stand around making jokey comments about a car-jacking that they're witnessing. Next thing you know, we're in a court room with every ancillary character in the history of the show, each with his or her own story of how horrible Jerry and his friends are. The foursome is led to a single jail cell after being convicted under a Good Samaritan law and, essentially, starts having a conversation the same as they would at Monk's or Jerry's apartment.
As the credits role, Jerry, dressed in prison orange, performs a stand-up routine for the other inmates. The finale was bloated, lazy, and worst of all, not funny… with jokes falling flat left and right. Apparently most of the humor was supposed to come from the audience seeing the Soup Nazi or Newman one last time. For a show that had delivered consistent laughs throughout its entire run, not remaining true to the style of humor that had made it a cultural phenomenon was the ultimate sin.
St. Elsewhere
The critically acclaimed '80s medical drama had a very loyal fan base that kept it on the air. It's hard to remember but the Boston-based show was the career launching pad for a number of actors, Denzel Washington and Mark Harmon chief amongst them, and was a major influence on later hospital series like ER and Grey's Anatomy. In the finale, a bearded Howie Mandel leaves after finishing his residency and David Morse's soulful Dr. Morrison collects his young son to depart as well. As the show's moral center Dr. Westphal (Ed Flanders) returns to his office, his autistic son (Chad Allen) stares out the window at the falling snow.
Cut to: Westphal now dressed as a construction worker entering an apartment where his son is on the floor staring at a snow globe. What's inside the globe? A replica of St. Eligius Hospital, or St. Elsewhere, as it's more commonly called. So, the whole show was just something that played out in the mind of an autistic boy? Is that it? Really? The whole "it was all fake" ending worked exactly once with the brilliant final reveal on Newhart, but that's it.
Dexter
The closet serial killer played by Michael C. Hall is getting out of the game. With his girlfriend Hannah (Yvonne Strahovski) and son Harrison (Evan and Luke Kruntchev) in tow, he's going to skip out to Argentina and lead a more peaceful life... then a criminal shoots Dex's sister Debra (Jennifer Carpenter). Even though she seems fine, she suddenly lapses into a coma after a massive stroke. Dexter kind of matter-of-factly kills Saxon while he's in police custody, sends Hannah and Harrison off to Buenos Aires, and then takes Deb off life support. He steals her body and dumps it into the sea, before faking his own death. Except when we see Hannah and Harrison way down south, Dexter isn't with them and Hannah is reading a news story about his presumed watery demise.
We hear Dexter in a voice-over explaining how hard it is to be him. So, where is he? Well, why don't we let every fan of the Showtime hit take over from here: "A lumberjack?! He's a f**king lumberjack?! What do you mean he's a f**king lumberjack?!" Before that final scream-inducing reveal — seriously, how many TV sets were broken when remotes went sailing into them immediately after the shot of bearded Dexter? — the episode was pretty lifeless, moving from point A to B to C in a paint-by-numbers kind of way.
Roseanne
Just like with Seinfeld, the ending to Roseanne Barr's long-running sitcom felt like a cheat. Really it was a case where the show probably should've ended a couple of seasons before it actually did. The final season was an unmitigated disaster as the Connors won the lottery and the entire premise of the show changed, becoming a distorted rumination on the meaning of life. In the final episode, we see the cast of the show gathered around the kitchen table eating, laughing, and joking. Then a voice-over from Rosanne tells us that what we've been watching was a figment of her imagination. She's changed things from real life as she's written, including having Dan survive the heart attack that actually killed him two years prior. Worse, she calls into question what parts of the show going back before the heart attack were real (what do you mean David is really Becky's boyfriend?). Considering that the show became a ratings juggernaut with its funny portrayal of the real issues that face lower-middle class Americans, being told that it was just the main character's alternate reality was a slap in the face. And, while it's fine for a finale to be packed with emotion — plenty of fans cried at the end of M*A*S*H and The Mary Tyler Moore Show — the final shot of Roseanne sitting alone on her couch was unnecessarily depressing.
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Cartoon Network/Adult Swim
The doctor is back in! John C. Reilly's Check It Out! with Dr. Steve Brule is returning to Cartoon Network's Adult Swim with new episodes beginning on February 27 at 12:30 a.m.
The show, which originally began as a segment of Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! and has already completed two six-episode seasons, follows Reilly's clueless doctor as he examines "slice of life" topics as a local news contributor. As fans of the show know, it runs on a fictitious Channel 5 at 4:30 a.m. just before Mass for Shut-Ins. Reilly's character rarely understands what's happening and mispronounces everything from guests' names to words like "spa," all while dressed in a tattered tweed jacket and sporting a haircut somewhere between Eraserhead and the Three Stooges' Larry Fine.
The brilliance comes from the show's look. Trying to recapture the feel of tacky local programming before the digital age, the show's footage is run back through a VCR so that touches like glitches with the vertical hold can be added. With its Chyron graphics, it has the look of something produced in the late '70s or early '80s at a small, middle-of-nowhere station, without ever mentioning a time period or geographic area.
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Reilly, who has never had a problem swinging between prestige projects and goofing around with friends like Will Ferrell, is intentionally vague about the character. In an Esquire interview, he told the magazine that it was "just better left mysterious." That said, over the course of the shows, there has been backstory elements revealed, usually adding up to a disturbing image. For example, in the episode above, Brule interviews his own mother, who admits that she wanted to have him stuffed and mounted.
In keeping with the spirit of the show, Cartoon Network has been evasive about what we should expect from Season 3, releasing just a short exclusive promo clip to Entertainment Weekly to announce the season premiere. No matter where Reilly takes the good doctor, however, it's sure to be an interesting ride… one well worth checking out.
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Everett Collection
The 2014 Sundance Film Festival lineup for the U.S. and World Cinema Dramatic and Documentary competition and the out-of-competition NEXT section is officially here, and damn are we excited.
As the festival has evolved and grown, so has the long list of actors and directors who have eagerly jumped on board to be a part of the indie film scene, which means that the lineup of actors for the upcoming event is looking pretty solid. In 2014 we can look forward to seeing the works of those like Glenn Close, Susan Sarandon, John Slattery, Aaron Paul, Kristen Stewart, and Mark Ruffalo, and comedians such as Kristen Wiig, Bill Hader, Lena Dunham, Jenny Slate, Aubrey Plaza, Amy Sedaris, and more.
The festival will run from Jan. 16 to 26 in Park City, Utah and will include 118 features. Still to come are the lineups for Slates for Spotlight, Park City at Midnight, New Frontier, Premieres and Documentary Premieres, and the new Sundance Kids category.
Check out the lineup so far (via Vulture):
DRAMATIC COMPETITION
Camp X-Ray / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Peter Sattler) — A young woman is stationed as a guard in Guantanamo Bay, where she forms an unlikely friendship with one of the detainees. Cast: Kristen Stewart, Payman Maadi, Lane Garrison, J.J. Soria, John Carroll Lynch.Cold in July / U.S.A. (Director: Jim Mickle, Screenwriters: Jim Mickle, Nick Damici) — After killing a home intruder, a small town Texas man's life unravels into a dark underworld of corruption and violence. Cast: Michael C. Hall, Don Johnson, Sam Shepard, Vinessa Shaw, Nick Damici, Wyatt Russell.Dear White People / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Justin Simien) — Four black students attend an Ivy League college where a riot breaks out over an “African American” themed party thrown by white students. With tongue planted firmly in cheek, the film explores racial identity in postracial America while weaving a story about forging one's unique path in the world. Cast: Tyler Williams, Tessa Thompson, Teyonah Parris, Brandon Bell.Fishing Without Nets / U.S.A., Somalia, Kenya (Director: Cutter Hodierne, Screenwriters: Cutter Hodierne, John Hibey, David Burkman) — A story of pirates in Somalia told from the perspective of a struggling, young Somali fisherman. Cast: Abdikani Muktar, Abdi Siad, Abduwhali Faarah, Abdikhadir Hassan, Reda Kateb, Idil Ibrahim.God's Pocket / U.S.A. (Director: John Slattery, Screenwriters: John Slattery, Alex Metcalf) — When Mickey's stepson Leon is killed in a construction "accident," Mickey tries to bury the bad news with the body. But when the boy's mother demands the truth, Mickey finds himself stuck between a body he can’t bury, a wife he can’t please, and a debt he can’t pay. Cast: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Richard Jenkins, Christina Hendricks, John Turturro.Happy Christmas / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Joe Swanberg) — After a breakup with her boyfriend, a young woman moves in with her older brother, his wife, and their 2-year-old son. Cast: Anna Kendrick, Melanie Lynskey, Mark Webber, Lena Dunham, Joe Swanberg.Hellion / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Kat Candler) — When motocross and heavy metal obsessed, 13-year-old Jacob's delinquent behavior forces CPS to place his little brother Wes with his aunt, Jacob and his emotionally absent father must finally take responsibility for their actions and each other in order to bring Wes home. Cast: Aaron Paul, Juliette Lewis, Josh Wiggins, Deke Garner, Jonny Mars, Walt Roberts.Infinitely Polar Bear / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Maya Forbes) — A manic-depressive mess of a father tries to win back his wife by attempting to take full responsibility of their two young, spirited daughters, who don't make the overwhelming task any easier. Cast: Mark Ruffalo, Zoe Saldana, Imogene Wolodarsky, Ashley Aufderheide.Jamie Marks is Dead / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Carter Smith) — No one seemed to care about Jamie Marks until after his death. Hoping to find the love and friendship he never had in life, Jamie’s ghost visits former classmate Adam McCormick, drawing him into the bleak world between the living and the dead. Cast: Cameron Monaghan, Noah Silver, Morgan Saylor, Judy Greer, Madisen Beaty, Liv Tyler.Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter / U.S.A. (Director: David Zellner, Screenwriters: David Zellner, Nathan Zellner) — A lonely Japanese woman becomes convinced that a satchel of money buried in a fictional film is, in fact, real. Abandoning her structured life in Tokyo for the frozen Minnesota wilderness, she embarks on an impulsive quest to search for her lost mythical fortune. Cast: Rinko Kikuchi.Life After Beth / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Jeff Baena) — Zach is devastated by the unexpected death of his girlfriend, Beth. When she mysteriously returns, he gets a second chance at love. Soon his whole world turns upside down... Cast: Aubrey Plaza, Dane DeHaan, John C. Reilly, Molly Shannon, Cheryl Hines, Paul Reiser.Low Down / U.S.A. (Director: Jeff Preiss, Screenwriters: Amy Albany, Topper Lilien) — Based on Amy Jo Albany's memoir, Low Down explores her heart-wrenching journey to adulthood while being raised by her father, bebop pianist Joe Albany, as he teeters between incarceration and addiction in the urban decay and waning bohemia of Hollywood in the 1970s. Cast: John Hawkes, Elle Fanning, Glenn Close, Lena Headey, Peter Dinklage, Flea.The Skeleton Twins / U.S.A. (Director: Craig Johnson, Screenwriters: Craig Johnson, Mark Heyman) — Estranged twins Maggie and Milo coincidentally cheat death on the same day, prompting them to reunite and confront the reasons their lives went so wrong. As the twins' reunion reinvigorates them, they realize the key to fixing their lives may just lie in repairing their relationship. Cast: Bill Hader, Kristen Wiig, Luke Wilson, Ty Burrell, Boyd Holbrook, Joanna Gleason.The Sleepwalker / U.S.A., Norway (Director: Mona Fastvold, Screenwriters: Mona Fastvold, Brady Corbet) — A young couple, Kaia and Andrew, are renovating Kaia´s secluded family estate. Their lives are violently interrupted when unexpected guests arrive. The Sleepwalker chronicles the unraveling of the lives of four disparate characters as it transcends genre conventions and narrative contrivance to reveal something much more disturbing. Cast: Gitte Witt, Christopher Abbott, Brady Corbet, Stephanie Ellis.Song One / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Kate Barker-Froyland) — Estranged from her family, Franny returns home when an accident leaves her brother comatose. Retracing his life as an aspiring musician, she tracks down his favorite musician, James Forester. Against the backdrop of Brooklyn’s music scene, Franny and James develop an unexpected relationship and face the realities of their lives. Cast: Anne Hathaway, Johnny Flynn, Mary Steenburgen, Ben Rosenfield.Whiplash / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Damien Chazelle) — Under the direction of a ruthless instructor, a talented young drummer begins to pursue perfection at any cost, even his humanity. Cast: Miles Teller, JK Simmons.
NEXT
Appropriate Behavior / U.S.A., United Kingdom (Director and screenwriter: Desiree Akhavan) — Shirin is struggling to become an ideal Persian daughter, a politically correct bisexual, and a hip, young Brooklynite, but fails miserably in her attempt at all identities. Being without a cliché to hold on to can be a lonely experience. Cast: Desiree Akhavan, Rebecca Henderson, Halley Feiffer, Scott Adsit, Anh Duong, Arian Moayed. World Premiere.Drunktown's Finest / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Sydney Freeland) — Three young Native Americans—a rebellious father-to-be, a devout Christian woman, and a promiscuous transsexual—come of age on an Indian reservation. Cast: Jeremiah Bitsui, Carmen Moore, Morningstar Angeline, Kiowa Gordon, Shauna Baker, Elizabeth Francis. World Premiere.The Foxy Merkins / U.S.A. (Director: Madeleine Olnek, Screenwriters: Lisa Haas, Jackie Monahan, Madeleine Olnek) — Two lesbian hookers work the streets of New York. One is a down-on-her-luck newbie; the other is a beautiful—and straight—grifter who's an expert on picking up women. Together they face bargain-hunting housewives, double-dealing conservative women, and each other in this prostitute buddy comedy. Cast: Lisa Haas, Jackie Monahan, Alex Karpovsky, Susan Ziegler, Sally Sockwell, Deb Margolin.A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Ana Lily Amirpour) — In the Iranian ghost town Bad City, a place that reeks of death and loneliness, depraved denizens are unaware they are being stalked by a lonesome vampire. Cast: Sheila Vand, Arash Marandi, Dominic Rains, Marshall Manesh, Mozhan Marnó, Milad Eghbali. World Premiere.Imperial Dreams / U.S.A. (Director: Malik Vitthal, Screenwriters: Malik Vitthal, Ismet Prcic) — A 21-year-old, reformed gangster's devotion to his family and his future are put to the test when he is released from prison and returns to his old stomping grounds in Watts, Los Angeles. Cast: John Boyega, Rotimi Akinosho, Glenn Plummer, Keke Palmer, De'aundre Bonds. World Premiere.Land Ho! / U.S.A., Iceland (Directors and screenwriters: Martha Stephens, Aaron Katz) — A pair of ex-brothers-in-law set off to Iceland in an attempt to reclaim their youth through Reykjavik nightclubs, trendy spas, and rugged campsites. This bawdy adventure is a throwback to 1980s road comedies, as well as a candid exploration of aging, loneliness, and friendship. Cast: Paul Eenhoorn, Earl Nelson, Alice Olivia Clarke, Karrie Krouse, Elizabeth McKee, Emmsjé Gauti. World Premiere.Listen Up Philip / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Alex Ross Perry) — A story about changing seasons and changing attitudes, a newly accomplished writer faces mistakes and miseries affecting those around him, including his girlfriend, her sister, his idol, his idol's daughter, and all the ex-girlfriends and enemies that lie in wait on the open streets of New York. Cast: Jason Schwartzman, Elisabeth Moss, Jonathan Pryce, Krysten Ritter, Josephine de La Baume. World Premiere.Memphis / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Tim Sutton) — A strange singer drifts through the mythic city of Memphis, surrounded by beautiful women, legendary musicians, a stone-cold hustler, a righteous preacher, and a wolf pack of kids. Under a canopy of ancient oak trees and burning spirituality, his doomed journey breaks from conformity and reaches out for glory. Cast: Willis Earl Beal, Lopaka Thomas, Constance Brantley, Devonte Hull, John Gary Williams, Larry Dodson. World Premiere.Obvious Child / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Gillian Robespierre) — An honest comedy about what happens when Brooklyn comedian Donna Stern gets dumped, fired, and pregnant, just in time for the worst/best Valentine's Day of her life. Cast: Jenny Slate, Jake Lacy, Gaby Hoffmann, David Cross, Gabe Liedman, Richard Kind. World Premiere.Ping Pong Summer / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Michael Tully) — 1985. Ocean City, Maryland. Summer vacation. Rap music. Parachute pants. Ping pong. First crushes. Best friends. Mean bullies. Weird mentors. That awkward, momentous time in your life when you're treated like an alien by everyone around you, even though you know deep down you're as funky fresh as it gets. Cast: Susan Sarandon, John Hannah, Lea Thompson, Amy Sedaris, Robert Longstreet, Marcello Conte. World Premiere.War Story / U.S.A. (Director: Mark Jackson, Screenwriters: Kristin Gore, Mark Jackson) — A war photographer retreats to a small town in Sicily after being held captive during the conflict in Libya. Cast: Catherine Keener, Hafsia Herzi, Vincenzo Amato, Donatella Finocchiaro, Ben Kingsley. World Premiere.
U.S. DOCUMENTARY COMPETITIONAlive Inside: A Story of Music &amp; Memory / U.S.A. (Director: Michael Rossato-Bennett) — Five million Americans suffer from Alzheimer's disease and dementia—many of them alone in nursing homes. A man with a simple idea discovers that songs embedded deep in memory can ease pain and awaken these fading minds. Joy and life are resuscitated, and our cultural fears over aging are confronted. All the Beautiful Things / U.S.A. (Director: John Harkrider) — John and Barron are lifelong friends whose friendship is tested when Barron's girlfriend says Barron put a knife to her throat and raped her. Not knowing she has lied, John tells her to go to the police. Years later, John and Barron meet in a bar to resolve the betrayal.CAPTIVATED The Trials of Pamela Smart / U.S.A., United Kingdom (Director: Jeremiah Zagar) — In an extraordinary and tragic American story, a small town murder becomes one of the highest profile cases of all time. From its historic role as the first televised trial to the many books and movies made about it, the film looks at the media’s enduring impact on the case. The Case Against 8 / U.S.A. (Directors: Ben Cotner, Ryan White) — A behind-the-scenes look inside the case to overturn California's ban on same-sex marriage. Shot over five years, the film follows the unlikely team that took the first federal marriage equality lawsuit to the U.S. Supreme Court.Cesar's Last Fast / U.S.A. (Directors: Richard Ray Perez, Lorena Parlee) — Inspired by Catholic social teaching, Cesar Chavez risked his life fighting for America’s poorest workers. The film illuminates the intensity of one man’s devotion and personal sacrifice, the birth of an economic justice movement, and tells an untold chapter in the story of civil rights in America. Dinosaur 13 / U.S.A. (Director: Todd Miller) — The true tale behind one of the greatest discoveries in history. Day One film.E-TEAM / U.S.A. (Directors: Katy Chevigny, Ross Kauffman) — E-TEAM is driven by the high-stakes investigative work of four intrepid human rights workers, offering a rare look at their lives at home and their dramatic work in the field. Fed Up / U.S.A. (Director: Stephanie Soechtig) — Fed Up blows the lid off everything we thought we knew about food and weight loss, revealing a 30-year campaign by the food industry, aided by the U.S. government, to mislead and confuse the American public, resulting in one of the largest health epidemics in history. The Internet's Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz / U.S.A. (Director: Brian Knappenberger) — Programming prodigy and information activist Aaron Swartz achieved groundbreaking work in social justice and political organizing. His passion for open access ensnared him in a legal nightmare that ended with the taking of his own life at the age of 26. Ivory Tower / U.S.A. (Director: Andrew Rossi) — As tuition spirals upward and student debt passes a trillion dollars, students and parents ask, "Is college worth it?" From the halls of Harvard to public and private colleges in financial crisis to education startups in Silicon Valley, an urgent portrait emerges of a great American institution at the breaking point. Marmato / U.S.A. (Director: Mark Grieco) — Colombia is the center of a new global gold rush, and Marmato, a historic mining town, is the new frontier. Filmed over the course of nearly six years, Marmato chronicles how townspeople confront a Canadian mining company that wants the $20 billion in gold beneath their homes. No No: A Dockumentary / U.S.A. (Director: Jeffrey Radice) — Dock Ellis pitched a no-hitter on LSD, then worked for decades counseling drug abusers. Dock's soulful style defined 1970s baseball as he kept hitters honest and embarrassed the establishment. An ensemble cast of teammates, friends, and family investigate his life on the field, in the media, and out of the spotlight. The Overnighters / U.S.A. (Director: Jesse Moss) — Desperate, broken men chase their dreams and run from their demons in the North Dakota oil fields. A local Pastor's decision to help them has extraordinary and unexpected consequences.Private Violence / U.S.A. (Director: Cynthia Hill) — One in four women experience violence in their homes. Have you ever asked, “Why doesn't she just leave?” Private Violence shatters the brutality of our logic and intimately reveals the stories of two women: Deanna Walters, who transforms from victim to survivor, and Kit Gruelle, who advocates for justice. Rich Hill / U.S.A. (Directors: Andrew Droz Palermo, Tracy Droz Tragos) — In a rural, American town, kids face heartbreaking choices, find comfort in the most fragile of family bonds, and dream of a future of possibility. Watchers of the Sky / U.S.A. (Director: Edet Belzberg) — Five interwoven stories of remarkable courage from Nuremberg to Rwanda, from Darfur to Syria, and from apathy to action. WORLD CINEMA DRAMATIC COMPETITION
52 Tuesdays / Australia (Director: Sophie Hyde, Screenplay and story by: Matthew Cormack, Story by: Sophie Hyde) — Sixteen-year-old Billie’s reluctant path to independence is accelerated when her mother reveals plans for gender transition, and their time together becomes limited to Tuesdays. This emotionally charged story of desire, responsibility, and transformation was filmed over the course of a year—once a week, every week, only on Tuesdays. Cast: Tilda Cobham-Hervey, Del Herbert-Jane, Imogen Archer, Mario Späte, Beau Williams, Sam Althuizen. International Premiere.Blind / Norway, Netherlands (Director and screenwriter: Eskil Vogt) — Having recently lost her sight, Ingrid retreats to the safety of her home—a place she can feel in control, alone with her husband and her thoughts. But Ingrid's real problems lie within, not beyond the walls of her apartment, and her deepest fears and repressed fantasies soon take over. Cast: Ellen Dorrit Petersen, Henrik Rafaelsen, Vera Vitali, Marius Kolbenstvedt. World Premiere.Difret / Ethiopia (Director and screenwriter: Zeresenay Berhane Mehari) — Meaza Ashenafi is a young lawyer who operates under the government's radar helping women and children until one young girl's legal case exposes everything, threatening not only her career but her survival. Cast: Meron Getnet, Tizita Hagere. World Premiere.The Disobedient / Serbia (Director and screenwriter: Mina Djukic) — Leni anxiously waits for her childhood friend Lazar, who is coming back to their hometown after years of studying abroad. After they reunite, they embark on a random bicycle trip around their childhood haunts, which will either exhaust or reinvent their relationship. Cast: Hana Selimovic, Mladen Sovilj, Minja Subota, Danijel Sike, Ivan Djordjevic. World Premiere.God Help the Girl / United Kingdom (Director and screenwriter: Stuart Murdoch) — This musical from Stuart Murdoch of Belle &amp; Sebastian is about some messed up boys and girls and the music they made. Cast: Emily Browning, Olly Alexander, Hannah Murray, Cora Bissett, Pierre Boulanger. World Premiere.Liar's Dice / India (Director and screenwriter: Geetu Mohandas) — Kamala, a young woman from the village of Chitkul, leaves her native land with her daughter to search for her missing husband. Along the journey, they encounter Nawazudin, a free-spirited army deserter with his own selfish motives who helps them reach their destination. Cast: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Geetanjali Thapa, Manya Gupta. International Premiere.Lilting / United Kingdom (Director and screenwriter: Hong Khaou) — The world of a Chinese mother mourning the untimely death of her son is suddenly disrupted by the presence of a stranger who doesn't speak her language. Lilting is a touching and intimate film about finding the things that bring us together. Cast: Ben Whishaw, Pei-Pei Cheng, Andrew Leung, Peter Bowles, Naomi Christie, Morven Christie. World Premiere.
Lock Charmer (El cerrajero) / Argentina (Director and screenwriter: Natalia Smirnoff) — Upon learning that his girlfriend is pregnant, 33-year-old locksmith Sebastian begins to have strange visions about his clients. With the help of an unlikely assistant, he sets out to use his newfound talent for his own good. Cast: Esteban Lamothe, Erica Rivas, Yosiria Huaripata. World Premiere.To Kill a Man / Chile, France (Director and screenwriter: Alejandro Fernandez Almendras) — When Jorge, a hardworking family man who's barely making ends meet, gets mugged by Kalule, a neighborhood delinquent, Jorge's son decides to confront the attacker, only to get himself shot. Even though Jorge's son nearly dies, Kalule's sentence is minimal, heightening the friction. Cast: Daniel Candia, Daniel Antivilo, Alejandra Yañez, Ariel Mateluna. World Premiere.Viktoria / Bulgaria, Romania (Director and screenwriter: Maya Vitkova) — Although determined not to have a child in Communist Bulgaria, Boryana gives birth to Viktoria, who despite being born with no umbilical cord, is proclaimed to be the baby of the decade. But political collapse and the hardships of the new time bind mother and daughter together. Cast: Irmena Chichikova, Daria Vitkova, Kalina Vitkova, Mariana Krumova, Dimo Dimov, Georgi Spassov. World Premiere.Wetlands / Germany (Director: David Wnendt, Screenwriters: Claus Falkenberg, David Wnendt, based on the novel by Charlotte Roche) — Meet Helen Memel. She likes to experiment with vegetables while masturbating and thinks that bodily hygiene is greatly overrated. She shocks those around her by speaking her mind in a most unladylike manner on topics that many people would not even dare consider. Cast: Carla Juri, Christoph Letkowski, Meret Becker, Axel Milberg, Marlen Kruse, Edgar Selge. North American Premiere.White Shadow / Italy, Germany, Tanzania (Director: Noaz Deshe, Screenwriters: Noaz Deshe, James Masson) — Alias is a young albino boy on the run. His mother has sent him away to find refuge in the city after witnessing his father's murder. Over time, the city becomes no different than the bush: wherever Alias travels, the same rules of survival apply. Cast: Hamisi Bazili, James Gayo, Glory Mbayuwayu, Salum Abdallah. International Premiere.
WORLD CINEMA DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION
20,000 Days On Earth / United Kingdom (Directors: Iain Forsyth &amp; Jane Pollard) — Drama and reality combine in a fictitious 24 hours in the life of musician and international culture icon Nick Cave. With startlingly frank insights and an intimate portrayal of the artistic process, this film examines what makes us who we are and celebrates the transformative power of the creative spirit. World Premiere.Concerning Violence / Sweden, U.S.A., Denmark, Finland (Director: Göran Hugo Olsson) — Concerning Violence is based on newly discovered, powerful archival material documenting the most daring moments in the struggle for liberation in the Third World, accompanied by classic text from The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon. World Premiere.The Green Prince / Germany, Israel, United Kingdom (Director: Nadav Schirman ) — This real-life thriller tells the story of one of Israel’s prized intelligence sources, recruited to spy on his own people for more than a decade. Focusing on the complex relationship with his handler, The Green Prince is a gripping account of terror, betrayal, and unthinkable choices, along with a friendship that defies all boundaries. World Premiere.
Happiness / France, Finland (Director: Thomas Balmès) — Peyangki is a dreamy and solitary eight-year-old monk living in Laya, a Bhutanese village perched high in the Himalayas. Soon the world will come to him: the village is about to be connected to electricity, and the first television will flicker on before Peyangki's eyes. North American Premiere.Love Child / South Korea, U.S.A. (Director: Valerie Veatch) — In Seoul in the Republic of Korea, a young couple stands accused of neglect when "Internet addiction" in an online fantasy game costs the life of their infant daughter. Love Child documents the 2010 trial and subsequent ruling that set a global precedent in a world where virtual is the new reality. World Premiere.Mr leos caraX / France (Director: Tessa Louise-Salomé) — Mr leos caraX plunges us into the poetic and visionary world of a mysterious, solitary filmmaker who was already a cult figure from his very first film. Punctuated by interviews and previously unseen footage, this documentary is most of all a fine-tuned exploration of the poetic and visionary world of Leos Carax, alias Mr. X. World Premiere.My Prairie Home / Canada (Director: Chelsea McMullan) — A poetic journey through landscapes both real and emotional, Chelsea McMullan’s documentary/musical offers an intimate portrait of transgender singer Rae Spoon, framed by stunning images of the Canadian prairies. McMullan’s imaginative visual interpretations of Spoon’s songs make this an unforgettable look at a unique Canadian artist. International Premiere.The Notorious Mr. Bout / U.S.A., Russia (Directors: Tony Gerber, Maxim Pozdorovkin) — Viktor Bout was a war profiteer, an entrepreneur, an aviation tycoon, an arms dealer, and—strangest of all—a documentary filmmaker. The Notorious Mr. Bout is the ultimate rags-to-riches-to-prison memoir, documented by the last man you'd expect to be holding the camera. World Premiere.Return to Homs / Syria, Germany (Director: Talal Derki) — Basset Sarout, the 19-year-old national football team goalkeeper, becomes a demonstration leader and singer, and then a fighter. Ossama, a 24-year-old renowned citizen cameraman, is critical, a pacifist, and ironic until he is detained by the regime's security forces. North American Premiere.SEPIDEH – Reaching for the Stars / Denmark (Director: Berit Madsen) — Sepideh wants to become an astronaut. As a young Iranian woman, she knows it’s dangerous to challenge traditions and expectations. Still, Sepideh holds on to her dream. She knows a tough battle is ahead, a battle that only seems possible to win once she seeks help from an unexpected someone. North American Premiere.We Come as Friends / France, Austria (Director: Hubert Sauper) — We Come as Friends views colonization as a human phenomenon through both explicit and metaphoric lenses without oversimplified accusations or political theorizing. Alarmingly, It is not a historical film since colonization and the slave trade still exist. World Premiere.Web Junkie / Israel (Directors: Shosh Shlam, Hilla Medalia) — China is the first country to label “Internet addiction” a clinical disorder. Web Junkie investigates a Beijing rehab center where Chinese teenagers are deprogrammed. World Premiere.
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The most unpredictable phenomenon in nature is the arrival of a new season of Curb Your Enthusiasm. Putting shame to the very idea of a regular programming schedule, creator and star Larry David seems to haphazardly decide, every couple of years, "Sure, let's do another." Several weeks of improved kvetching later, we have a show. So, the lot of us fans are waiting for that next batch of Curbs: a string that could take Larry to Paris (as suggested in the Season 8 finale), or well beyond the confines of the reality to which you and I are anchored. In the meantime, however, a newly generous David has decided to sate his fan base's craving with Clear History: a chance for the artist to do something different… although, in essence, not at all different. Not even a little.
In the HBO movie, Larry plays a bearded marketing genius who leaves his prosperous automotive conglomerate in a huff when he disagrees with his boss (Jon Hamm) on the name of the new model: the Howard — an act performed in a very Larry David fashion (didn't he do this in real life, actually? When he was working for Saturday Night Live? Are you sure this isn't just a Curb episode we missed?). After that, the Howard takes off, and a disgraced Larry — oh, I'm sorry. Nathan. His name is Nathan in this — moves from Los Angeles to Martha’s Vineyard to live under the radar in a new, quiet, decidedly curmudgeonly but sweetly fulfilling existence. He leaves the upper crust society types with whom he didn't really belong (including a nameless, much younger, much more attractive wife who seemed perpetually frustrated with him — so, Cheryl) to join the everymen of the Massachusetts island with whom he also doesn’t really belong. Location notwithstanding, the Curb similarities increase.
We meet Nathan (under the guise of "Rolly") 10 years down the line. He has wrangled Danny McBride as his Jeff, a schlubby second in command who at once resents and admires his partner. He insults local business owners, ex-girlfriends, and town newcomers, incurring no true ramifications in any ordeal. Only when Jon Hamm's character moves to Martha's Vineyard in a stroke of coincidence does Larry's life take a real tumble.
In his effort to get rid of, ruin the life of, or somehow otherwise eradicate the problem that is Hamm's character, Larry explores zaniness to a new degree. Stepping beyond the confines of Curb, Larry's character entertains plans like blowing up his house and stealing his wife — things even Curb's Larry wouldn't consider doing. In this cartoonish fashion does Clear History stray from the HBO series… and only here. Otherwise, we're just treated to a long line of observational diatribes, ceaseless whinings, and celebrity cameos. The sort of thing we find on an episode of David's show.
And to be honest, that's just fine. No, we shouldn't ask for more Clear Historys. David's comedy works best in the half hour format, and with his established persona pulling the cart. Clear History only works, in fact, if you're willing to treat it as a Curb movie with the names changed. Under a different attitude, it's quite messy and senseless, something that you cannot say of David's succinct and neat little show. But until said show comes back, sure, we'll take this. Larry David complaining in a new location? Alongside John Hamm, Danny McBride, Michael Keaton, and Bill Hader? Yes. That'll tide us over for now.
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As you prepare to enjoy the 4th of July weekend, SSN gives you a preview of good TV to look out for in the coming weeks.
We hope you tuned in to Showtime last night for the final season premiere of Dexter and the premiere of Ray Donovan. Dexter is back in fine form as his sister Debra has quit the police force and is mentally going off the rails. This is the show’s final season and you should be on the lookout for Charlotte Rampling in upcoming episodes as a neuro-psychiatrist who knows a lot about Dexter even though he doesn’t realize who she is at first.
Ray Donovan stars Liev Schreiber as a very effective Hollywood fixer with personal problems of his own, starting with his ex-con father Mickey (Jon Voight). Ray tries to protect and take care of his family and his two brothers, Bunchy (Dash Mihok) and Terry (Eddie Marsan), but as soon as Mickey shows up in L.A., it all starts to go south. Be sure you make time each Sunday night for Dexter and Ray Donovan.
Upcoming shows we’re looking forward to:
INTERIOR THERAPY WITH JEFF LEWIS SEASON PREMIERE Tuesday – July 9th, 2013 at 9:00pm on Bravo
Reasons To Watch: Say what you will about Jeff Lewis: his OCD makes him extra-particular about everything, his eye for detail sometimes borders on the insane but the man knows how to make a home livable and beautiful. Lewis and his right-hand gal Jenni Poulos are back to help troubled couples and families with home decorating issues that also affect their relationships.
THE BRIDGE SERIES PREMIERE Wednesday – July 10th, 2013 at 10:00pm on FX
Academy Award nominee Demian Bichir (A Better Life) and Diane Kruger star in this new drama from writers Meredith Stiehm (Homeland, Cold Case) and Elwood Reid (Hawaii Five-O, Cold Case). Based on the Danish/Swedish series Bron, which was set on the border of Denmark and Sweden, The Bridge is set on the border between El Paso and Juarez. It centers on two detectives, one from the U.S., Detective Sonya Cross (Kruger), and one from Mexico, Marco Ruiz (Bichir), who must work together to hunt down a serial killer operating on both sides of the U.S.-Mexican border. The Bridge co-stars Ted Levine, Annabeth Gish, and Thomas M. Wright. Gerardo Naranjo (Miss Bala) directed the pilot.
Reasons To Watch: Bichir never gives a bad performance. We loved him as a drug kingpin on Weeds a few seasons ago and we know he’ll be equally compelling as a lawman. We also loved Stiehm’s writing on Homeland, especially the pivotal season one episode “The Weekend.” If The Bridge adheres to the FX drama brand, it will be worth watching.
ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK SERIES PREMIERE Thursday – July 11th, 2013 at 12:01am on Netflix
Reasons To Watch: Jenji Kohan (Weeds) adapted Piper Kerman’s memoir of an executive’s time in a minimum security women’s prison for drug charges. Kohan excels at writing women in unusual circumstances and combining humor and pathos. We’ve seen the first two episodes and we’re in for the run. Taylor Schilling is cast well as Piper Chapman, the yuppie gal who goes to prison for a crime she committed ten years ago. Jason Biggs plays her loving fiancée Larry, Laura Prepon is a woman from Piper’s past (no spoilers here) and look for Kate Mulgrew in a very different kind of role.
HOLLYWOOD GAME NIGHT SERIES PREMIERE Thursday – July 11th, 2013 at 10:00pm on NBC
Reasons To Watch: Jane Lynch and games! Jane Lynch hosts this fun, light show that has celebrities like Matthew Perry, Lisa Kudrow, Jason Alexander, Josh Gad, Kristin Chenoweth, Martin Short, Allison Hannigan, Kristen Bell, and Daniel Dae Kim teaming up with civilians to compete in party games.
THE NEWSROOM SEASON PREMIERE Sunday – July 14th, 2013 at 10:00pm on HBO
Reasons To Watch: This Aaron-Sorkin-penned drama is far from perfect (don’t get us started on how Sorkin writes female characters) but the combination of fast wordplay and Jeff Daniels make the show worth watching. We also think Thomas Sadowski and John Gallagher Jr. are great and we hope they both get meatier storylines this season. We also hope to see more of Jane Fonda, though we haven’t heard how many episodes she’ll turn up in during this second season.
What will you be watching? Do you have any summer TV favorites? Let us know in the comments.
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In celebration of Superman's 75th anniversary, and the release June 14 of the Son of Krypton's latest big-screen adventure Man of Steel, writer Larry Tye, author of Superman: The High-Flying History of America's Most Enduring Hero, Now Out In Paperback, contributes this essay exclusively to Hollywood.com on the unique qualities some of the actors who've played Superman — Kirk Alyn, George Reeves, Christopher Reeve, and Henry Cavill — have brought to the role.
Nobody is more All-American than Superman in his red cape, blue tights and bright yellow "S." So how is it that a Brit – a native of the Channel Islands and a product of a Buckinghamshire boarding school, with an English brogue no less – is donning the leotards and cape in the new Man of Steel movie?
Warner Bros' selection of Henry William Dalgliesh Cavill as our newest Superman seems ill-conceived if not profane, the more so coming just as America is celebrating its hero's milestone 75th birthday. But Cavill, a British heartthrob who played the First Duke of Suffolk on the Showtime series The Tudors, wouldn't be the first on-screen Man of Steel to defy convention and, in so doing, to soar higher than even his studio handlers dared dream.
Kirk Alyn, the original live-action Superman, was more a song-and-dance man than an actor, having studied ballet and performed in vaudeville and on Broadway in the 1930s and early forties. That's where he decided to trade in the name he was born with, John Feggo, Jr., for Kirk Alyn, which he felt was better suited to the stage. He appeared in chorus lines and in blackface, modeled for muscle magazines, and performed in TV murder mysteries in the days when only bars had TVs and only dead-end actors performed for the small screen. But he had experience in movie serials, if not in superheroes, so when he got a call from Columbia Pictures in 1948 asking if he was interested in trying out for Superman he jumped into his car and headed to the studio. Told to take off his shirt so the assembled executives could check out his build, the burly performer complied. Then producer-director Sam Katzman instructed him to take off his pants. "I said, 'Wait a minute.' They said, 'We want to see if your legs are any good,'" he recalled forty years later. They were good enough, and fifteen minutes after he arrived, Alyn was hired as the first actor to play a Superman whom fans could see as well as hear.
Alyn and his directors were smart enough not to try and reinvent the character that Bud Collyer had introduced so convincingly to the radio airwaves. “I visualized the guy I heard on the radio. That was a guy nothing could stop,” Alyn said. "That's why I stood like this, with my chest out, and a look on my face saying, 'Shoot me.'" His demeanor said "tough guy" but his wide eyes signaled approachability and mischievousness, just the way creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster had imagined their Superman a decade before. Alyn understood, the same way Collyer had, that kids could spot a phony in an instant. If they didn't think Alyn was having fun – and that he believed in Superman – they wouldn't pay to see his movies. His young audience, after all, didn't just admire the Man of Steel. They loved him. Superman was not merely who they dreamed of becoming but who they were already, if only we could see. The good news for them was that Alyn was having fun, and he did believe in his character in a way that these pre-teens and teens appreciated even if movie reviewers wouldn't.
In the 1950s, when Superman was gearing up for television, producer Robert Maxwell and director Tommy Carr screened nearly two hundred candidates who were sure they were him. Most made their living as actors, although some were full-time musclemen. Nearly all, Carr said, "appeared to have a serious deficiency in their chromosome count." So thorough – and perhaps so frustrating – was their search that the executives stopped by the Mr. America contest in Los Angeles. One choice they never seriously considered, despite his later claims, was Kirk Alyn, who had done well enough for the serials but had neither the acting skills nor the looks around which to build a Superman TV series. The search ended the day a barrel-chested B-movie actor named George Reeves showed up on the studio lot.
Maxwell's co-producer had recognized Reeves in a Los Angeles restaurant, seeming "rather forlorn," and suggested he come in for a tryout. He did, the next morning, and "from that moment on he was my first choice," said Carr. "He looked like Superman with that jaw of his. Kirk had the long neck and fine features, but although I like Kirk very much, he never looked the Superman Reeves did." His tough-guy demeanor was no put-on. Standing six-foot-two and carrying 195 pounds, Reeves had been a light-heavyweight boxing champ in college and could have gone further if he hadn't broken his nose seven times and his mother hadn't made him step out of the ring.
The Superman TV show, like other incarnations of his story, turned around the hero himself. Collyer, the first flesh-and-blood Man of Steel, had set the standard. He lowered and raised the timbre of his voice as he switched between Superman and Clark, making the changeover convincing. Maxwell's wife Jessica, the TV dialogue director, would follow Reeves around the set urging him to do the same – but he just couldn't master the switch. The result: a Superman who sounded just like his alter ego. They both swallowed their words. They looked and acted alike. There was no attempt here to make Clark Kent into the klutz he was in the comics. No slouching; no shyness. Reeves portrayed the newsman the way he knew, and that Jessica's husband told him to: hard-boiled and rough-edged, Superman in a business suit. The only differences were that Reeves would shed his rubber muscles and add thick tortoise-shell glasses with no lenses – that was the sum total of his switch to Clark Kent.
But it worked. It worked because fans wanted to be fooled, and because of the way Reeves turned to the camera and made it clear he knew they knew his secret, even if Lois, Jimmy, and Perry didn't. This Superman had a dignity and self-assurance that projected even better on an intimate TV screen than it had in the movies. Reeves just had it somehow. He called himself Honest George, The People's Friend – the same kind of homespun language Jerry and Joe used for their creation – and he suspended his own doubts the way he wanted viewers to. He looked not just like a guy who could make gangsters cringe, but who believed in the righteousness of his hero's cause. His smile could melt an iceberg. His cold stare and puffed-out chest could bring a mob to its knees. Sure, his acting was workmanlike, but it won him generations of fans. Today, when those now grown-up fans call to mind their carefree youth, they think of his TV Adventures of Superman, and when they envision Superman himself, it is George Reeves they see.
Christopher Reeve was an even less likely choice when producers set out to find the right Superman for their 1970s motion picture extravaganza. It wasn't just his honey brown hair and 180 pounds that did not come close to filling out his six-foot-four frame. He had asthma and he sweated so profusely that a crew member would have to blow dry his armpits between takes. He was prep school and Ivy League, with a background in serious theater that made him more comfortable in England's Old Vic than its Pinewood movie lot. He was picked, as he acknowledged, 90% because he looked "like the guy in the comic book . . . the other 10% is acting talent." He also was a brilliant choice. He brought to the part irony and comic timing that harked back to the best of screwball comedy. He had dramatic good looks and an instinct for melding humanism with heroism. "When he walked into a room you could see this wasn't a conventional leading man, there was so much depth he had almost an old movie star feeling," says casting director Lynn Stalmaster. The bean counters loved his price: $250,000, or less than a tenth of what Marlon Brando would get for the modest role as Superman's dad. Director Richard Donner asked Reeve to try on his horned-rimmed glasses. Squinting back at him was Clark Kent. Even his name fit: Christopher Reeve assuming the part made famous by George Reeves. "I didn't find him," Donner would say throughout the production. "God sent him to me."
Superman changed with every artist who filled in his features, writer who scripted his adventures, and even the marketers and accountants who managed his finances and grew his audience. Each could claim partial ownership. Actors like Christopher Reeve did more molding and framing than anyone and could have claimed more proprietorship. With each scene shot it was clearer that he was giving the hero a different face as well as a unique personality. Reeve's Superman would be funnier and more human – if less powerful or intimidating – than any who had proceeded him. He was more of a Big Blue Boy Scout now, in contrast to Kirk Alyn's Action Ace and George Reeves's Man of Steel. In the hands of this conservatory-trained actor, Supes was getting increasingly comfortable baring his soul.
Picking up the role and the mythos now will be English actor Henry Cavill, whose first appearance on the big screen was as Albert Mondego in The Count of Monte Cristo (2002). Can Cavill make us believe the way Reeve, Reeves, and Alyn did, and make us embrace a British-accented Man of Metropolis?
History suggests he can – provided he and Warner Bros. remember the formula that has served their hero so brilliantly for 75 years and counting. It starts with the intrinsic simplicity of his story. Little Orphan Annie and Oliver Twist reminded us how compelling a foundling's tale can be, and Superman, the sole survivor of a doomed planet, is a super-foundling. The love triangle connecting Clark Kent, Lois Lane, and Superman has a side for everyone, whether you are the boy who can't get the girl, the girl pursued by the wrong boy, or the conflicted hero. His secret identity might have been annoying if we hadn't been let in on the joke and we didn't have a hero hidden within each of us. He was not just any hero, but one with the very powers we would have: the strength to lift boulders and planets, the speed to outrun a locomotive or a bullet, and, coolest on anyone's fantasy list, the gift of flight.
Superpowers, however, are just half the equation. More essential is knowing what to do with them, and nobody has a more instinctual sense than Superman of right and wrong. He is an archetype of mankind at its pinnacle. Like John Wayne, he sweeps in to solve our problems. No "thank you" needed. Like Jesus Christ, he descended from the heavens to help us discover our humanity. He is neither cynical like Batman nor fraught like Spider-Man. For the religious, he can reinforce whatever faith they profess; for nonbelievers he is a secular messiah. The more jaded the era, the more we have been suckered back to his clunky familiarity. So what if the upshot of his adventures is as predictable as with Sherlock Holmes: the good guy never loses. That is reassuring.
There is no getting around the fact that the comic book and its leading man could only have taken root in America. What could be more U.S.A. than an orphaned outsider who arrives in this land of immigrants, reinvents himself, and reminds us that we can reach for the sky? Yet this flying Uncle Sam also has always been global in his reach, having written himself into the national folklore from Beirut to Buenos Aires. If Cavill acknowledges both sides of that legacy, the all-American and the all-world, then he should be able to reel back aging devotees and draw in new ones.
Larry Tye was an award-winning journalist at The Boston Globe and a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University. A lifelong Superman fan, Tye now runs a Boston-based training program for medical journalists. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller Satchel, as well as The Father of Spin, Home Lands, and Rising from the Rails, and co-author, with Kitty Dukakis, of Shock. He lives in Lexington, Massachusetts, and is currently writing a biography of Robert F. Kennedy.
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There is a palpable excitement brewing for Inside Llewyn Davis. It doesn't come from folk music aficionados, or even Justin Timberlake's devoted fan base. It comes from the lovers of the Coen Brothers. The handful of directorial features from the Minnesota siblings have ranged from subject matters of organized crime to writer's block to bowling... but throughout, they have maintained an inimitable aura. No matter what a Coen Brothers movie is about, it is always, unmistakably, a Coen Brothers movie. And such is the case for their latest venture, starring Oscar Isaac as a folk singer in 1960s Queens.
The below trailer, premiering before the movies big Cannes Film Festival premiere, showcases Isaac in all of his infantile, oafish, nihilistic glory. You know, all the things that make for your perfect Coen Brothers hero. And he surrounds himself with a world that is unmistakably born from the imaginations of the men who dreamt up No Country for Old Men, A Serious Man, and Barton Fink. If you're a fan of the fraternal films, make a check list of all the Coenisms that Llewyn Davis upholds in the trailer. We've got a few marked off...
1. Doe-Eyed, Thick-Headed Good Guy Hero with a Song in His HeartBarton Fink (Barton Fink), Norville Barnes (The Hudsucker Proxy), The Dude (The Big Lebowski), Everett McGill (O Brother, Where Art Thou?), Larry Gopnik (A Serious Man), meet Llewyn Davis.
2. Oddballs All Around Him, Speaking in Loose VerseWhat's with the moon-faced fellow we meet at the beginning of the trailer? Was he hit in the head with a shovel and as such can only speak as though he's reading a children's book?
3. Pithy HostilityNobody tosses around a well-sculpted insult like a great Coen Brothers supporting character should.
4. Bleak, Foggy, Dreamy WorldsFrom Miller's Crossing to True Grit, the Coens have managed some dire, cloudy ambiances. Their take on Queens seems to live up just fine.
5. SnowThey're from Minnesota, so it's got to be part of their ideology.
6. John GoodmanYeah, he's in this one too.
Follow Michael Arbeiter on Twitter @MichaelArbeiter
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I feel like every single Real Wine Tasters of Sour Grapes Cay recap I've written this season is exactly the same and they all sound like this: Kernya Moo-ah is absolutely insane and thank God she is around.
That's all I have to say about last night's episode, really. It can be boiled down into that, into that one sentence: Kernya Moo-ah is absolutely insane and thank God she is around. She is crazy, but everyone else is being so boring, so all we can do is talk about her.
Seriously, what else happened last night? NeNe Leakes moved, and we have vowed that we would not be discussing moving in any of these recaps. We're not watching the Real Box Pickers of Manhattan Mini-Storage. No, we are not.
So even a glamorous move where NeNe goes to LA to become a big fat television star is not interesting enough for me to talk about. I will, however, discuss that three people on the show this season have moved. Three! There are only six people in the cast (seven if you count Kim) so that means half of the people on this show have moved. Half! How do you expect me to care about this?
Moving is the third worst thing in the world — behind only cancer and AIDS in terms of worseness. I don't want to watch that on TV just like I don't want to punch my nausea and fatigue symptoms into WebMD so it can tell me I have cancer, AIDS, or cancerous AIDS. I don't want any of that.
We did get to meet NeNe's granddaughter, Bri'Asia. OK, I just have to say this, but that is a reality TV show name. That is not a real name that belongs to a real person who has a job and sits at a desk and goes home to a quiet life with her husband and kids, soccer practice and episodes of The Good Wife on the DVR. No, people who live that life do not have a name with an apostrophe and a capital letter in the middle. Do you know who does? Reality stars. Well, reality stars and drag queens.
That means your little Bri'Asia is going to grow up to be cackling her head off and fighting with other people on television in front of the whole world. She will only wear designer clothes and will describe herself as a fashionista, a word that will still sadly exist in 2032 like some sort of linguistic cockroach. And that is fine if you want her to wind up just like her grandmother.
NeNe is famous. She is very rich, bitch. She is everything. But that does not mean her granddaughter is going to follow the same path because she has a reality star name. Larry Bird III is just some fat kid who dribbles Monster energy drink on the front of his shirt while he plays World of Warcraft on the Internet.
A name is not destiny. So if you name her a reality star and then she becomes the first female CEO of Bank of America or a checkout girl at the Piggly Wiggly she's going to sound like she is totally out of place. Congratulations Bryson and Ashley, (which are both normal names) you have given your daughter a life of dashed dreams as a reality TV personality.
Oh, also, NeNe didn't even find out that her son got a girl pregnant until Ashley was six months along and NeNe ran into her at a party and Ashley was like, "Yeah, I don't know why Bryson won't tell you, but here it is!" She rubbed her baby bump in front of NeNe just like Beyoncé did on the red carpet at the Video Music Awards, but no one thought Ashley was Beyonce. Not one single person.
NeNe and Cynthia take Bri'Asia shopping and NeNe buys her a whole mess of dresses and capes and twirly lacy things and head wraps and tiaras and clip on earrings and anklets and all sorts of other shit she does not need and has no occasion to wear.
You might as well bought that baby a pair of crotchless underwear, because that would be equally as appropriate. What this granddaughter needs is not to be turned into a reality TV star which her name has destined her to be. No, she needs bibs and onesies and pacifiers and sun hats and rattle toys that roll around on the ground. She needs all those boring and awful things that no one wants to buy. She does not need dresses. There is no Winter Formal at Cynthia Bailey's Daycare Center and School for Modeling. There is not.
And Bryson doesn't even wear anything but sweatpants when he leaves the house, so where is he going to take his baby that she needs a blouse, a dress, and a matching coat (and in the Atlanta heat)?
What else happened this episode? Kandi and her man Todd (whom I want to marry) talked about how they're not getting married around Kandi's daughter, who has wonderful glasses. (Her glasses were the most exciting thing in the episode.)
Kandi went furniture shopping with Portia, who we found out does not have a prenup which (insert rave siren noise right here). Phaedra gave her 2-year-old son sweet tea which, well, probably isn't the worst for him but, you know, probably isn't the best.
They had a going away party for NeNe which was nice, and Phaedra gave her a photo of all the girls from Anguilla. It was the first picture they had ever taken as a group that wasn't in front of a step and repeat, so that was sweet. Oh, and Kandi wore a pair of sparkly bootie shorts that are illegal in 38 states and all of Canada. Oof.
So what else are we left with? Just Kernya Moo-ah. That is all. That is all we have now, ladies and gentlemen.
We just have her with a bunch of fake hair on her head that looks like a rumpled up duvet. It's just her in a boxing ring and too much makeup doing a photo shoot for Krave Magazine (an imaginary publication that exists on one iPad in Kernya Moo-ah's publicist's office) while she thinks about how much fun it is going to be when she gets home and gives her new dildo a whirl. That is all we have. This is all we have to look forward too.
Mostly the craziness of Kernya Moo-ah has to do with her fake relationship with Walter which is unraveling, but first we have to talk about one thing that Kernya Moo-ah said.
Oh, you know what I'm talking about. "Every day someone thinks I am Beyoncé." She said that. She said that with a complete lack of irony. She said that and she actually believes that it is true.
My head has not stopped shaking since I heard it and now my neck is entirely stiff, but it still will not stop shaking. She thinks she looks like Beyoncé.
She actually does. I mean, someone once might have said to her, "Oh you kind of look like Beyoncé," just like some drunk homosexual told me at a bar once that I look like Paul Rudd. That does not mean that I think that people mistake me for Paul Rudd. It also does not mean that I think like I look like Paul Rudd because, well, I don't have a beard, chest hair, a boyishly handsome face, and that alluring aroma that only people who have a net worth in the eight figures can emit.
I have none of that, and just because some fool thinks I do does not mean it's true, it means that person is an idiot.
Then Kernya went on to make it even worse and said, "At the inauguration, everyone thought I was Beyoncé and like 10 people lined up to get my autograph and then there was like 20, then 50, then a 100 people were lined up for my autograph because they thought I was Beyoncé."
OK, that did not happen. That just did not happen. That is such an obvious lie it's like when that little Connie Kowalski told you in fifth grade that her grandfather owned Burger King and you were like, "Connie, you're stupid," because everyone with a pair of ears who was not given sweet tea in a bath before their third birthday knows it is a lie.
I can see how one dope could say, "Look, it's Beyoncé," and ask for an autograph, and then everyone else would just be like "OH, I hear Beyoncé is in there," and then they'd get in line too and you'd have a little scrum, but once the first person got close enough to actually look Kernya Moo-ah in the face he'd be like, "Oh, never mind, false alarm."
Because Kernya, as beautiful as she is, does not look like Beyoncé. She doesn't even look like her sister. Portia, on the other hand, actually looks like Solange. She does.
I would know she's not Solange, but she bears a resemblance. The only way Kernya looks like the Queen B is that they are both black, both skinny, and both have light hair. Both Neil Patrick Harris and I are tall, white, and gay and that does not make us the same person, it does not at all. Same goes for Kernya and Mrs. Z.
The other thing about the whole Kernya Moo-ah lie about everyone thinking she's Beyoncé is that Kernya Moo-ah would not let anyone think for a second that she is Beyoncé.
The first guy who was like, "Look! It's Beyoncé!" would get a "No, I'm Kernya Moo-ah," thinking that that person would know that she is the second black Miss USA, but they would not. They would not know her from her direct-to-DVD movies, they would not know her for anything.
She would never let herself be mistaken for another celebrity because Kernya thinks that she is a real celebrity. She does. It's true. She's so freaking Bonkers (and that is an actual psychological diagnosis) that she thinks she is a celebrity.
So then Kernya took Walter fishing and, well, we all know it's over.
She was crazy and pressured him into getting married and having babies, and he wasn't ready. He doesn't even want to look at her naked body when it is covered in soap like he's some sort of Jergen's Body Wash fetishist or something. He is done with her. He's fishing and checking his watch and has this amused smile on his face that says, "I'm not going to dump you, I'm just going to treat you like shit until you break up with me." God, Walter, that is a dick move.
That is such a thing for a "nice guy," to do. He can't think of himself being the one to do the dumping, so he just waits for Kernya to end it herself.
So they just stand there, casting their hooks into the lake pulling back nothing but pieces of trash and little dried up plants. Kernya stares off across the pond into the morning light that is coming at an angle where you think the rays are actually visible, where you think you can see the sun.
It seems so bright, so warm, as the flies swarm around them, not being a nuisance, just being part of the background. That's what Kernya sees: the sun, the pond, the bugs, her fishing line, like a tear in the air, launching toward the lake. That's what she sees, fixates on.
She's looking so hard, looking so hard at the light that she can't even see it right next to her. The end is here.
Follow Brian Moylan on Twitter @BrianJMoylan
[Photo Credit: Bravo]
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Title

Curly suffered a stroke during the filming of "Half-Wits Holiday" and replaced by Shemp

As therapy for a burn accident, learned to play the violin; played at amateur nights in South Philadelphia

After Moe formed new Stooges act with Fine and Joe DeRita (as Curly-Joe), trio co-starred in "Have Rocket – Will Travel"

Joined Gus Edwards' Newsboy Sextette as musician and comedian

Performed with wife and sister-in-law as "The Haney Sisters and Fine"

Portrayed by Sean Hayes in the Farrelly brothers' comedy feature "The Three Stooges"

Sang and played violin at movie slide shows for $2 per performance

Following Shemp's death of a heart attack, Joe Palma and then Joe Besser brought in as part of The Three Stooges

Shared writing credit with fellow Stooges in film short "Punch Drunks"

Performed on Broadway in "A Night in Venice"

Featured in the live action and animated series "The New 3 Stooges"

Portrayed by Evan Handler in the ABC TV-movie "The Three Stooges"

Appeared with Ted Healy, Moe Howard, and Shemp Howard in act that would evolve into The Three Stooges

Film debut with Healy and co. in "Soup to Nuts," then billed as 'The Racketeers'

Co-starred with Moe and Curly Howard in first Three Stooges short "Woman Haters"; appeared in 190 comedy films as member of The Three Stooges

Attempted to make final Stooges film "Kook's Tour"; production halted after suffering a stroke

Co-starred, along with Moe and Shemp, opposite George O'Brien in the Western feature "Gold Raiders"

Co-starred with fellow Stooges in satirical short "You Nazty Spy!"

After departure of Healy, The Three Stooges signed to contract with Columbia

Appeared in final "Three Stooges" feature film "The Outlaws Is Coming!"

Summary

The middleman for the comedy trio known as The Three Stooges, Larry Fine endured endless slaps, pokes in the eye and mallets to the head, all for the sake of laughter. Alongside brothers Moe and Shemp Howard, Larry first found fame as a member of the vaudeville musical-comedy act, Ted Healy and his Stooges. But it was only after the Howard's younger brother, Jerome - renamed "Curly" - replaced Shemp and the trio became a solo act officially known as the Three Stooges, that they achieved massive success on a national level. For Columbia Pictures, the Three Stooges would star in nearly 200 short films over a remarkable 24 year period. Both revered and reviled for their gleefully violent slapstick, Larry, Moe and Curly became an indelible part of American pop culture. Over the course of a nearly 40 year career, there were several changes in the line-up - Curly's health problems brought back Shemp, who in turn was replaced by comedian Joe Besser, who eventually gave way to "Curly Joe" DeRita. Throughout it all, however, Larry remained a constant presence alongside Moe, lending an understated sense of calm to the chaotic proceedings. Often underappreciated as a comedic actor, Fine was later praised by lifelong Stooge fanatic and filmmaker Peter Farrelly, who said that while children were drawn to Curly and teens tended to appreciate Moe, "Anyone out of college, if you're not looking at Larry, you don't have a good brain."

Name

Role

Comments

Phyllis Fine

Daughter

Lyla Budnick

Sister

born c. 1920

Joseph Feinberg

Father

owned watch repair and jewelry shop

Fanny Feinberg

Mother

owned watch repair and jewelry shop

Morris Feinberg

Brother

younger

Philip Feinberg

Brother

younger; died as an infant

Johnny Fine

Son

born c. 1947; died in car accident on November 17, 1961 at age 24

Mabel Haney

Wife

met Fine on vaudeville circuit, formed act, "The Haney Sisters and Fine"; died on May 30, 1967

Education

Name

Southwalk Grammar School

Notes

Fine's favorite feature was "The Three Stooges Meet Hercules" (1962).

"He tended to be a bit of a goof-off. But not a real goldbricker; he just wasn't as dedicated as Moe was." – director Ed Bernds on Fine